OVID Health Analysis: New kids on the voting bloc A political temperature reading

What is the outlook for health?

Last week, Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to one of the most dramatic electoral wins the country has seen in decades. In the wake of Johnson’s landslide victory, his opposition suffered crushing defeats – Labour’s announced he would step down after a “process of reflection” and the Lib Dem’s lost her seat as the claimed victory in .

New kids on the voting bloc

The recent election has brought in a sizeable number of new MPs – 140 in total. That’s a bigger group of MPs than all of the representatives for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland combined. It’s fair to say this new host of political hopefuls will have a big influence on the Government. Boris Johnson’s allies have already suggested the Prime Minister is out to “northernise” the Cabinet – a verb we can expect to find in our dictionaries by the end of 2020. The man himself, speaking in Tony Blair’s old constituency of Sedgefield, promised to deliver a legislative agenda that would “repay” the first-time Tory voters who caused Labour’s Red Wall to crumble. Investing in the NHS and social care is one of the key promises Johnson hopes will secure their continued loyalty. British politics is changing, and we are seeing the new faces who will be changing it.

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Taking Parliament’s temperature

As some stars rise, others must inevitably fall. Long-serving former Conservative/former Independent/eventual Lib Dem Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston, lost her seat in . Her colleagues on the committee, Lib Dem and Labour’s Paul Williams, have also had to clear their desks. With committee seats to be filled, and a likelihood that Tory MPs will fill them, there’s every chance a newcomer may take one of the vacant places. Looking more broadly, the incoming cohort features an array of first-time MPs with experience and interest in health policy. Their backgrounds will shape and inform what they do over the next five years – the causes they support, the insights they provide, and the votes they cast. We’ve taken the temperature of the new Parliament and have identified the top 10 ‘hot’ new MPs to watch in health. These parliamentary profiles provide thoughts on the first-time MPs who may reshape health…

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Conservatives A former community councillor and owner of a micro-brewery, Atherton is a former servicewoman, having joined the regular army at 16. She retrained and became a District Nurse before becoming a social worker specialising in the elderly and in mental health.

As Wales’ first female Tory MP, and the first ever Conservative to win in Wrexham, Atherton’s constituency is one that the Conservatives will want to build its base in in order to hold onto its recent electoral gains. Ynys Môn Another of one of the first female Welsh Tory MPs, narrowly beaten to the title by Sarah Atherton. With a degree in microbiology, Crosbie worked at GlaxoWellcome before it became GSK, working on the production of interferon.

She then moved into banking, becoming a director at UBS and later an award-winning pharmaceutical analyst at HSBC. Crosbie was teaching maths and working as director of political mentoring group Women2Win prior to her own election victory. Her varied CV is capped off by her experience as a dolphin trainer for Terry Nutkin on the BBC show Animal Magic. Luke Evans Bosworth The 2017 British Public Speaking Champion has an involved background in medicine. As well as being a GP, he is the son of a GP and nurse, and is married to a fellow GP. He is also the eldest of three brothers – the other two are also doctors.

Evans was selected last year as one of ‘Tomorrow’s Champions’ by the Conservative Policy Forum to act as an outreach ambassador for health, developing the policy conversation with ‘harder-to-reach’ voter groups that the Tory’s were set on turning blue. Kieran Mullan Crewe and Nantwich Son of a nurse and a policeman, Mullan grew up in social housing and went on to become an A&E doctor. Though he’s kept it quiet on his campaign literature, he was also Director of Policy & Public Affairs at the Patients Association and then Head of Engagement & Strategy.

He went on to serve as an independent advisor in the inquiry into NHS complaints procedure in England in 2013, following the Francis report into Mid Staffordshire. He has contributed articles to and Conservative Home around health, and other topics. Ben Spencer Runnymede and Weybridge Taking over the seat from former Chancellor Philip Hammond, NHS consultant psychiatrist Ben Spencer is well positioned to be a big name in health policy for government.

A long-time Conservative activist, Spencer is a Vice Chair of Conservative Health – a membership organisation with influence on Tory health and social care policy. On top of this, he is also the organisation’s Lead for their Mental Health Special Interest Group. He’s written about the government’s need to tackle the ‘mental health epidemic’ in the UK, and this topic will likely be a key focus for his tenure as an MP.

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Labour Feryal Clark Enfield North A Labour moderate and deputy mayor of Hackney, Clark is from the Kurdish community, who helped to see her through a controversial candidate selection and into the previously occupied by .

She studied bioinformatics at Exeter University, going on to work in diagnostic biochemistry and diagnostic virology for four years until 2010. She was elected to Hackney Council and was Lead member for Health and Social Care, giving her responsibility for adult social care, public health and the relationship with the wider NHS, amongst other things. Mary Foy City of Durham A Labour Party member for 30 years, Foy – before her election – was the local party chair for Blaydon, the regional representative on Labour’s national policy forum, a cabinet member on Gateshead Council with responsibility for health and wellbeing, Chair of Gateshead Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership, and a member of both Unite and UNISON.

Foy cites the NHS as one of her main priorities, especially after her experience as a mother and carer to a disabled daughter – her daughter Maria suffered brain damage at birth causing cerebral palsy. Expect her to be a voice in Parliament for health services, as well as for the rights of people with disabilities. Taiwo Owatemi North West 27-year old Owatemi is a senior oncology pharmacist specialising in cancer and palliative care, as well as having been Vice Chair of the Young Fabian Health Network. A Londoner, she was the surprise winner of both the candidate selection for the seat in Coventry and the Parliamentary election itself, albeit with a reduced majority.

Her father’s death when she was six – due to a lack of available organ donors – and experience being raised by her mother (who is a nurse) had a formative impact on her political views. She gained experience working under after being selected for a Parliamentary internship by the Social Mobility Foundation.

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Other Parties Munira Wilson Twickenham (Liberal Democrats) Wilson was selected to stand in ’s constituency of Twickenham after the former Lib Dem leader announced he would be stepping down at the election. Having worked as a political assistant to prior to the Coalition, she is a lifelong Lib Dem campaigner.

She brings a wealth of experience working in health, including managing strategic relationships with health agencies at NHS Digital, as well as public affairs at the charity Beating Bowel Cancer. She has worked extensively in government and corporate affairs at multinational pharma companies Novartis and (most recently) Merck. Amy Callaghan East Dunbartonshire (SNP) The new MP that gave so much to cheer about, Callaghan unseated Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson in one of the election’s biggest upsets. Sturgeon’s praise was not limited to her much-viewed victory celebration, having described the 27-year old as likely to be “one of the stars of the next House of Commons.”

Truly, what she has overcome is very moving. After being diagnosed with skin cancer at 19, she had surgery to remove part of her cheekbone and nerves from her face. She relapsed at 21 and credits the NHS with saving her life. Cancer free for five years now, she is a powerful advocate for cancer services. Notably, she worked on a collaborative project with Teenage Cancer Trust, CLIC Sergeant and Children with Cancer UK to produce a BMJ paper exploring the damage cancer does to your mental health.

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